Sylvia's Journal

This was supposed to have been the first full week of work, or mostly full. I think I will continue to need some down time on Mondays and Fridays. ‘Full’ means three days of commuting to Cambridge. But the car is still in the garage and we don’t know when it will be fixed. I did the calculations for train travel and decided to stay home and have my planned meetings by telephone. It’s not a great sacrifice even though I enjoyed being in the office last week. I won’t miss the commute.

The snowstorm that first brought rain and sleet and later snow kept me inside on my birthday, except for one sortie to the physical therapist late in the day. I told Julia that after her last intervention, painful as it had been, I had limbered up considerably. Of my own free will I requested a repeat. The appointed 30 minutes stretched out to one and a half hour with much mobilization exercise, topped of with a 20 minute (stationary) bike ride and the usual 10 minutes of icing. The last half hour means I get much reading done which is part of the attraction. I am fully immersed in the experiences of the spitfire women.

Neighbor Ted was our physical therapy appointment driver. He took Axel to Peabody and later me to downtown. I had planned to take the bike but the weather was too nasty and he would not have let me. What would we do without our neighbors!

I had a nice Skype conversation with Tessa. Because of the fancy computer she has I see her on my screen (and everything/everyone else who happens to walk by her). This is something I remember from sci-fi movies a long time ago, the picture phone, and here it is, as if she is right there with me. The florist delivered her gift, a small square bouquet with a ribbon that looks like a wrapped gift box, quite nifty. It sits in front of me, the gift that never opens.

Sita is busy with her scribing in India. She sent me her birthday wishes on December 2 because it was already the 3rd for her, confusing Tessa. Sita is having a wonderful time. I don’t think she has set foot outside the fancy hotel yet but hopefully, after all is over, Nathalie will show her another side of India; a side that is probably not represented as the high and might meet at the Taj Palace Hotel to discuss India’s economic future. She sent us the front page of a newspaper with her at work. Axel discovered that you can see her at work at http://www.pbase.com/forumweb/india2007&page=all

Axel had planned a festive mussels and fries dinner but being without a car, he had to make other plans. He cooked a spicy stir-fry beef instead that left the house in smoke and me coughing but it was worth it when the smoke cleared, the coughing stopped and we sat down for dinner. We shared the Belgian Duvel beer that Gary gave Axel sometime in July, half a glass each. It reminded us of how much pretense there is in a pretend-beer.

Axel went to a town event in the evening with his buddies. Afterwards they always land in a bar. Being on a no (sometimes interpreted as low) alcohol regime I wondered how he fared, but did not stay up to find out.